Lifts not operating at London Underground stations

Caroline Pidgeon: Please list the dates, length of time of closure, and the name of the Underground Station for which each lift was out of service solely due to an absence of trained members of staff during 2019.

The Mayor: The attached appendix shows the lifts that were out of service at London Underground (LU) step-free stations due to an absence of trained staff in 2019. So far there have been 29 instances where lifts were not available for this reason.
The amount of time it takes to return lifts to service depends on a number of factors including levels of staff absence or incidents elsewhere on the network, which require additional staff to be deployed.
I understand how challenging it can be for customers when lifts are temporarily taken out of service and I have been clear with Transport for London that these instances must be reduced.
All LU staff receive training on lift operations when they join and this is refreshed on an annual basis. The design of new lifts now being introduced at LU stations means that fewer lift qualified staff are required to operate these lifts, which will lead to greater availability.
Compared to the same period for 2018/2019, lift availability at step-free stations during 2019/20 has increased from 98.3 per cent to 98.8 per cent, against a target of 98.5 per cent.

Uber

Keith Prince: In granting ULL a 2 month licence TfL’s press release stated "Uber London Limited has been granted a two-month private hire operator licence to allow for scrutiny of additional information that we are requesting ahead of consideration of any potential further licensing application." What is that additional information and why was this not requested prior to the recent licence decision?

The Mayor: Please see my response to Mayor's Question 2019/19724.

Taxi spend - TFL

Andrew Boff: How much money did TFL spend on Taxis in the 2018-19 year?

The Mayor: Scheduled taxi services (which run on pre-determined routes at key locations) are used to provide transport to London Underground staff to and from their place of work in the early hours of the morning, when there is a reduced transport system. The fewest possible journeys are used by staff members sharing taxis whenever possible.
This arrangement means that critical operational staff can get to key locations such as depots, stations and control centres for the start of service. That minimises the risk of trains being cancelled or delayed, or stations not opening on time, which would lead to significant disruption for passengers. Ad hoc taxi services are used for unforeseen and emergency circumstances.
TfL’s spend on taxis for staff for the past seven years is as follows:
(*) 2013/14 - £3,875,309
(*) 2014/15 - £3,981,464
(*) 2015/16 - £4,056,247
(*) 2016/17 - £3,729,271
(*) 2017/18 -£3,587,031
(*) 2018/19 -£3,644,036
(*) 2019/20 – £1,897,594 (up to the end of September 2019)
These figures include taxis booked via the London Underground taxi contract as well as any taxi costs incurred on behalf of customers in exceptional circumstances.

Bus Idling at Turnpike Lane

Joanne McCartney: What more can you do to ensure the bus drivers at Turnpike Lane station do not engine idle? Residents are still contacting me stating that this is still an issue despite drivers being reminded recently by their bus operator.

The Mayor: I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to visit this area as frequently as possible to deter bus drivers from idling and for bus operators to be reminded about switching off. At the busiest times, the bus station controllers are on site to avoid buses queuing and idling as much as possible and they will sometimes redirect vehicles arriving to nearby stands to free up space and reduce too many vehicles standing there.
Another initiative that is helping to cut emissions at source is the upgrade of the bus fleet to the ultra-clean diesel standard, which can reduce the most harmful tailpipe emissions by up to three quarters. Some types of diesel-electric hybrid buses also switch off automatically if they are not moving in traffic or at bus stations. There can occasionally be a need for engines to run for short periods when drivers change over and carry out pre-shift vehicle checks to ensure features such as the ramp are working. The bus operators try to ensure these change overs are efficient and do not unnecessarily impact on nearby residents.

Tube Capacity (1)

Tony Devenish: Please provide the data – including times of day and times of the year – for the Tube lines where Tube capacity is below 50% utilisation?

The Mayor: Please see attached to this answer the capacity utilisation level of each Tube line by hour on a typical weekday. A second table tallies whether this value is over 50 per cent and a third estimates whether all seats are taken.
Please note Transport for London (TfL) does not have a way to monitor train loadings accurately in real time. Although it holds ticketing data, this only indicates where customers entered and exited the network, not which route they took within it. This analysis is based on the typical weekday TfL uses for planning purposes, where a combination of survey data and assignment modelling are used to determine the combination of routes passengers are likely to have taken through the network.